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A little while back I turned off my computer and it said it was downloading an update before it shut down. Ok, that's normal, its done this before. But then when I turned it on the next morning it gave me the new frowny face screen of blue screen of death.

Restarting I actually was able to log in, and promptly looked up what it had told me:

kmode_exception_not_handled

And my research informed me that this was an error caused by some kind of driver problem, and recommended that I use the Driver Verifier to fix it, which necessitates a reboot. Doing this I encountered another BSOD, a more persistent one, in fact it didn't go away. After a few restarts I managed to enable safe mode and did a system restore to a few days before the update, and this fixed everything...almost.

I am rather keen on not entering another struggle with drivers and blue screens but updates are important, especially security ones. So what would you recommend? I have been going through my devices list and trying to make sure I have the most recent drivers for all parts of my computer. Might the error have worked its way to windows by now and their next update might fix it and I can install them without this happening again? I can provide the last successful update number if that would help and any information about my computer's hardware or operating system (8.1) if that would also be useful.

If I have unknowingly committed some breach of forum protocol please let me know or if I missed this being covered in another post despite my searches please direct me to it, thank you in advance for any assistance rendered.

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Bit_Byte_Bit, sorry for the long delay in responding, normally am covering the Linux section, maybe I can assist, will do the best I can. That's all that any of us can do.

Having two 8.1 installs that were upgrades & one Windows 8 install yet to be upgraded gives me a bit of experience. More than I thought it would, hopefully we can get something working for you.

First off, we need some details about your computer. Please provide the following information, a Speccy snapshot of your OS & hardware. Not to worry, some of the things you'll see, like your license key (COA) & IP address, won't be seen by us, will be replaced with random information.

You will now be asked where you want to save the file. The best place to put it is the Desktop, as it will be easy to find later.

After the file finishes downloading, you are ready to run Speccy. If you downloaded the installer, simply double-click on it and follow the prompts until installation is complete. If you downloaded the portable version, you will need to unzip it before use. Right-click the ZIP file and click Extract all. Click Next. Open up the extracted folder and double-click on Speccy.

Once inside Speccy, it will look similar to this (with your computer's specifications, of course):

Now, in the menu bar at the top left, click File > Publish Snapshot

You will see the following prompt:

Click Yes > then Copy to Clipboard

Now, once you are back in the forum topic you are posting in, click the button. Right-click in the empty space of the Reply box and click Paste. Then, click Add Reply below the Reply box.

Congrats! You have just posted your specs!

Now, we need a bit of history. Was this computer purchased with Windows 8 & upgraded to 8.1, or did you purchase it with 8.1 pre-installed? Alternatively, was this computer purchased with Windows 7 or lower, upgraded to 8 & then 8.1?

The reason why I'm asking these questions, is to get a bit of history on your computer, we need more to work on than what's in your post above. If by chance you've upgraded from 7 or lower, then to 8 & to 8.1, that's a lot of upgrading, if that's the case. Upgrade installs in general, not the best way to go, but with 8.1 there was little choice. With Windows 8, there was the option for clean install at the end of the Upgrade. All one had to do was click Install later, and the options to create a USB Flash drive installer, DVD, or create an ISO to create media with later were there.

This wasn't the case with Windows 8.1, it was Upgrade only, and many Windows 8.1 users are having a hard time with drivers & software not functioning. Especially wireless cards. The error shown indicates a device not working or incorrectly configured.

If I have unknowingly committed some breach of forum protocol please let me know or if I missed this being covered in another post despite my searches please direct me to it, thank you in advance for any assistance rendered.

No, not at all, as to any breaches. However, it's always best to post as much information about your computer as possible. Such as make/model, CPU, RAM, HDD/SDD, any information that will assist us to identify your computer, this will allow us to research the issue. Perhaps others with the same computer are having the same issue & a fix has been long published. By us having that information, it's possible that we can assist a lot faster.

So the next post, please be sure to provide these details, as much as possible. The more, the better.

Time for me to hit the hay (about 5AM here), but will be back on here tomorrow evening, and look forward to reviewing your Speccy specs and answers to the other things I've asked about (any OS upgrades, it doesn't matter how many, please list all, if any). Make & model of computer, this often isn't in the Speccy specs.

Can't promise anything, but will do my best to assist you. Once input starts coming in, hopefully responses will be offered by others.

Good Luck!

Cat

Edited by cat1092, 19 January 2015 - 12:27 AM.

Performing full disc images weekly and keeping important data off of the 'C' drive as generated can be the best defence against Malware/Ransomware attacks, as well as a wide range of other issues.

While driver issues are one possible cause of that particular bsod, they are certainly not the only one. Here are a couple of suggestions:

1) NEVER use 3rd party driver utilities.

2) There is no such thing as an "outdated" driver. Driver updates are for added functionality or new features, but you should only update drivers if there is a specific need or reason to do so.

3) You should run checkdisk as follows: right-click on a command prompt icon and open as administrator. In the command prompt window type:chkdsk /r (then press ENTER). You'll be told the disk is in use and asked if you want to run checkdisk on the next boot. Say yes, exit the command prompt window, and reboot.

4) Look in Device Manager. Are there any yellow or red symbols? Please let us know.

5) Moving forward, you should begin using disc imaging software on a regular basis. Create the images on removable media so that if your system becomes unstable again at some point in the future you will have a recent, working image to which you can return.

6) No harm in checking your ram too: download memtest (http://memtest.org/). Burn it to a cd using a dedicated .iso burning utility (http://www.petri.co.il/how_to_write_iso_files_to_cd.htm), make sure the cd drive is at the top of the boot order in bios, then boot to the newly created cd and run the utility.